P2P file-sharing services are legal, says US appeals court

Wired story:

Peer-to-peer file-sharing services Morpheus and Grokster are legal, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

The decision is a blow for record labels and movie studios which sued the peer-to-peer operators claiming that the services should be held liable for the copyright infringement of their users.

The Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America have long argued that rampant trading of copyright songs and movies on these file-swapping networks has crippled their businesses.

The decision upholds an April 2003 U.S. District Court decision that these services should not be held liable for the illegal behavior of their users. The studios and labels appealed the decision and the appeals court heard oral arguments on the case in February.

The district court correctly applied the law, wrote Judge Sidney Thomas, a member of the three-judge panel for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“History has shown that time and market forces often provide equilibrium in balancing interests, whether the new technology be a player piano, a copier, a tape recorder, a video recorder, a personal computer, a karaoke machine, or an MP3 player,” Thomas wrote. “Thus, it is prudent for courts to exercise caution before restructuring liability theories for the purpose of addressing specific market abuses, despite their apparent present magnitude.”

Holes found in XP ‘security’ update

Well, well. From BBC Online:

“Barely hours after home users started securing their PCs with a key update for Windows XP, security experts have found ways around it.

The SP2 update makes XP less attractive to virus writers and malicious hackers by plugging widely exploited loopholes.

But discoveries by security firms Secunia and German company Heise show that some holes have been left open…”

EuroFOO Launch

Tim O’Reilly launched the Friends of O’Reilly Conference in Enschede a short while ago. Lots of interesting people, and the first self-organising conference I’ve ever attended. Plus wireless, wireless everywhere.

The perfect rainbow

This evening there was a torrential shower followed by sunshine. The result: the nearest thing I’ve seen to a perfect rainbow. Infuriatingly hard to photograph, though — especially with a digital camera. This doesn’t do it justice.

Absorption

Music reaches places other art forms cannot touch. There was a jazz group playing outside the railway station in Avignon. The woman in the picture spent at least 20 minutes listening with a rapt smile, tapping her feet, lost to everything except the music. She was still there when we left.

Provencal decor

Funny how simple things can be beautiful. This is an alcove in my bedroom in Provence.

What happens when you connect a Windows XP box to broadband and forget to turn on the firewall

Sobering piece by the Washington Post‘s Kathleen Day. (Free subscription required.)

“My problem began the last Sunday in July, when my nearly teenage daughter, newly returned from a month away at camp, announced, ‘Something’s wrong with the computer.’

In fact, her comment marked the start of a much larger headache, one that launched an odyssey that has taken $800 and roughly 48 man-hours over nearly three weeks to end. During that time, my personae alternated, usually several times a day. One moment I was the computer addict, the person stuck to the keyboard for hours and hours on end, driven by belief in a holy grail, that one more attempt would fix things. Then, when I pondered the time being wasted, I was an aspiring vigilante, keen to hunt down and kill all computer hackers…”

Lots more in that vein. It’s a great story, well told. And from my experience, quite a common tale. One more reason to stick to Macs and Linux….

Homeland insecurity

The aim of the US Department of Homeland Security is to enable Americans to sleep easily in their beds. But some ingenious entrepreneurs have been working on a fallback option — a bulletproof bed which is also protected against chemical and biological warfare. You think I jest? Well, take a look at this. I’m still convinced it’s a spoof, but my colleague Andrew Ingram (who sent me the link) swears that it’s for real.

Using video to make a point

I’m increasingly impressed by the way people on the Web are using video to make complex points simply and powerfully. Consider this succinct statement about the threat of infinite copright from the Free Cinema site.

The flip side of civilisation

I love being in France — love the self-confidence of the culture, the courtesy in village shops, the pace of life in Provence, the cafes, the sunshine, its Roman architectural heritage, the way its towns and villages are civilised by Plane trees, even the newspapers. A few days ago, the great French photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson, died. The next day Liberation not only devoted several pages to his life and work, but also put one of his more famous photographs on almost every page, culminating with a wonderful erotic nude on the back cover.

Most of all, it’s lovely to escape from the Anglo-American world for a period. But there are downsides. For example, until yesterday I had terrific GPRS service on my mobile phone, provided by Orange France via a roaming agreement with my network, T-mobile. But sometime yesterday afternoon, my connection disappeared — just vanished. So I borrowed a phone this morning and phoned customer service back in the UK. “I’m afraid there is an issue with mobile coverage in France at the moment”, said the girl. “We don’t yet have a time for resolution”. Which being translated means: there’s something wrong with our roaming arrangements with Orange France. And since it’s le weekend, nothing much is likely to happen until Monday. C’est la vie, as they say.

Correction! My connection was restored sometime very early on Sunday morning. So much for cultural stereotypes.